


Red, White, and ... true?

by StrangerAlexeiThings (orphan_account)



Series: {{Алексей}} [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alexei (Stranger Things) Lives, Eventual Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Good Parent Joyce Byers, M/M, Minor Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-25 23:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20033758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/StrangerAlexeiThings
Summary: After Alexei told Murray about Khristina (#3), they decide to try and *rescue* her. Joyce and Jim come over and agree to help. Sorry it’s short.





	Red, White, and ... true?

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back for the third installment of the {{Алексей}} series. If you have not read the previous two works in this series, I suggest that you read them before this. The third part was supposed to be released yesterday, but it took longer than I thought to work out all the details. If Murray is talking to Joyce or Jim it’s in English, anything else is Russian unless it says otherwise.

It’s been two days since Alexei told Murray about Khristina, and both have been wondering. Alexei is trying to think of a way to rescue to her, and also worrying that it might be too late. Murray, not usually one to care about other people, couldn’t care less about Khristina. To him, she was just another Russian, just another enemy. But he did care about Alexei, and because of that, he too was thinking of how to save her. The two men were sitting on Murray’s couch, Alexei staring off into space, and Murray flipping through the channels. Alexei turned his eyes from whatever he was looking and glanced at Murray.

“Murray?”   
Murray looked over into Alexei’s worried face.   
“Yes?”  
“Do- do you think it would be possible for me to go back to Russia?”   
“To rescue Khristina,” he added.  
Murray sighed.   
“I don’t know. They see you as a traitor, they’re never going to let you back.”  
Alexei’s face fell, and Murray said quickly  
“But it might be possible. If we find a way to get in without being seen, that is.”

All of a sudden there was a loud knock at the door, and Murray went over to his camera to see who was there. Outside we’re Joyce and Jim, Joyce looking worried (as usual) and Jim looking irritated, also as usual. Murray unlocked the door’s several locks and opened the door for them. Alexei came over to say hi and Murray translated for them. 

Joyce immediately asks, “Is something wrong? I thought something might have happened when you told us not to come yesterday.”

“Nothing’s wrong. We were just, ah, cleaning the house,” Murray finishes quickly. Alexei says something to Murray, and Murray translated it for Joyce and Jim,, who are now seated on the wooden chairs in the corner.

“Alexei says he’s sorry you couldn’t come yesterday because we were gone.” Murray hesitates, realizing his mistake.

“Wait a minute you little bastard!” Says Hopper.

“You told me we couldn’t come yesterday because you were cleaning!”

Murray whispers something to Alexei and sighs. 

“Yesterday, Alexei told me that he has a sister named Khristina who was kidnapped by the Russian government because she has special powers that let her travel through time. They told Alexei they would let her go if he could make them a machine that would let them time travel, but that’s impossible and we need to rescue her or else Alexei will be sad.”

“So what?” Asked Hopper. “What are we supposed to do about it? She’s all the way in Russia! And what should we even care about her?”

Murray glanced over at Alexei, who was attempting to communicate with Joyce, and then he turned back to Hopper

“Jim, even if we might not care about but we do care about Alexei,” he added softly.

Jim grunted something that sounded a little bit like “do we?” “Murray, I don’t care if she’s Alexei sister or whatnot. We can’t do anything about it.”

“Jim-“

“- This. Is. Not. Our. Problem!” Interrupted Jim, emphasizing each word. “Besides, why do you care? You’ve only known Alexei for less than a month.”

That’s true, Murray realized. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t known Alexei for very long. Somehow, it had seemed like they had known each other for years.

“Well, I do care about him! And I’m helping him whether you come or not.”

Hopper looked vaguely surprised at how strongly Murray felt. “Alright, I’ll help.”

“Good. Before we start making any plans, I just have to talk to Alexei.”

Murray goes over to where Alexei and Joyce are sitting and he tells Joyce that Hopper is going to help them. Joyce agrees to help also, and she goes over to talk with Hopper.

Murray turns to Alexei. “Joyce and Jim have both agreed to help us out, but I need you to make a decision before we go. You’re not legally supposed to be in the US, and I doubt Russia will let you in either, but... I need to know who you are loyal to now. And, just so you know, whatever choice you make, I will support.”

Alexei sighs and looks up at Murray. “You’ll still care about me, even if I choose the wrong one?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know. When I was in Russia, I longed to escape to somewhere else, and when I came here I finally found freedom.” He sighed. “There’s good and bad both ways. I don’t want to have to open the gate, or release monsters to be used as weapons, but I don’t know if I could bring myself to go against my homeland.” He paused, and both men sat for a moment, silent, lost in thought. Alexei began to speak again, slowly and carefully. I think that I would be better off staying loyal to Russia. Yes, everyone was poor there, but at least we were all poor together. And, from what I’ve seen here in America, so many people have so much, but they give none to the ones who have little.” Alexei stopped and looked up at Murray, worried that he would be disappointed. “Are- are you okay with my decision?”

It didn’t take Murray even a second to reply, “of course I am. I couldn’t care less what country you’re part of.” And that was true, thought Murray. He was suddenly no longer paranoid. A week ago he would have freaked out, knowing that a Russian was in his house, but now he wasn’t paranoid in the least. He looked over at Alexei, who was smiling at him like this was the best thing that ever happened, and in that moment Murray knew that he would do anything for Alexei. After a few minutes, Joyce and Jim said goodbye and left, and Murray told Alexei that he was going to bed early. When Murray got up to his bedroom, he lay down, but he couldn’t fall asleep, and so he tried to sort through the tumult of feelings inside his head. 

He knew that something inside him had been changing ever since he met Alexei. He was suddenly less paranoid, and every time he looked at Alexei he got this weird feeling. For a few minutes he just lay there, until, finally he decided to admit the truth to himself. For so long he had been denying his feelings for fear that he would be rejected, but they were too strong for him to hide anymore. He knew now that he loved Alexei, and that nothing could ever change that.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry guys I’m really bad with writing about relationships but at least I tried. I think Hopper was starting to catch on that something was going on between Alexei and Murray, it will be interesting to see what he thinks of that. Joyce hasn’t noticed anything, she kinda thinks of Alexei as a little kid.
> 
> Alexei has noticed that Murray was being a little weird but he didn’t think anything of it because he just thinks that Americans are weird in general. Also, I was going to make their relationship one way with just Murray, but that seemed too mean. Alexei will catch on to him soon enough.
> 
> Thank you guys so so so much for taking the time to read this, and please tell me what you think of it in the comments.


End file.
